This time God manifested His greatest sattvic (pure) qualities. It was that Primordial Power, the Great Mother of the Universe, the source of all Creation, who freely and joyfully expressed Herself, as it were, through the body of our Master. The Master’s intense spiritual Sadhanas (disciplines) will exert their influence not only on this earth, but also in the higher regions, even to Heaven. Oh what a play of Divine Power it was! …
His hands were very tender. But why speak just of his hands! His entire body was so. For instance, a type of luchi (fried bread) with a hard crust once cut his finger. ...
In those days we used to sleep on the floor of his room. At bedtime the Master would tell us how to lie down. He would say that if we were to lie flat on our backs and visualize the Mother in our hearts while falling asleep, then we would have spiritual dreams. He asked us to think of spiritual things while going to sleep. During the summer we used to sleep on the veranda and were bothered by mosquitoes. ...
We saw how little the Master slept. Now and then he might get an hour or half an hour of sleep at the most. Most of the time he was absorbed in Samadhi, and the remaining time he spent in spiritual moods. These moods became very pronounced at night. He would spend the whole night repeating the name of Mother or Hari. When we stayed with the Master at Dakshineswar we were filled with awe. He had no sleep at all. Whenever we awoke we would hear him talking with the Divine Mother in a state of spiritual inebriation. He would pace back and forth in the room, all the while muttering something inaudibly. Sometimes he would wake us in the middle of the night and say: "Hello, my dear boys! Have you come here to sleep? If you spend the whole night in sleep, when will you call on God?" As soon as we heard his voice, we would quickly sit up and start to meditate.
Some days he would start kirtan (devotional singing) accompanied by drums and cymbals, and we would join him. Usually he would sing only the names of God, occasionally improvising words and phrases. Sometimes he danced in ecstasy. Ah! How graceful his dancing was! He would then be transformed beyond recognition. It is impossible to describe his unique spiritual raptures! He had an unusually sweet voice, the like of which we never heard anywhere else. The kirtan would continue till the late hours of the morning. The Master's ecstasies were contagious, making all those around him ecstatic, and the constant repetition of the Lord's name made the place a heaven on earth. In what joy we passed our days with the Master!
Swami Shivananda
(Swami Chetanananda “Ramakrishna: As We Saw Him”, Swami Shivananda, “First Meetings with Sri Ramakrishna”)
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